by Katelynn Richardson
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit late Thursday against the Biden administration’s new asylum ban, which is intended to mitigate a surge in immigration following the end of Title 42, a public health policy that allowed the U.S. to expel migrants entering illegally.
The lawsuit alleges that the policy, which makes migrants who illegally enter the U.S. after failing to seeking protection in another safe country they have passed through ineligible for asylum, “attempts to resuscitate and combine the illegal features of the two previous asylum bans” the Ninth Circuit previously struck down.
“The Biden administration’s new ban places vulnerable asylum seekers in grave danger and violates U.S. asylum laws. We’ve been down this road before with Trump,” said Katrina Eiland, managing attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement. “The asylum bans were cruel and illegal then, and nothing has changed now.”
The new rule is similar to a Trump administration program previously rejected by the Biden administration.
“The Rule operates just as the Trump administration’s prior asylum bans did: Asylum seekers subject to the Rule—all non-Mexicans—are categorically barred unless they satisfy one of the enumerated and limited conditions or exceptions,” the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges.
Those who illegally cross the border under the asylum ban without scheduling an appointment through the CBP One app will be swiftly removed and subject to a five-year re-entry ban, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“We are strengthening the availability of legal, orderly pathways for migrants to come to the United States, at the same time proposing new consequences on those who fail to use processes made available to them by the United States and its regional partners,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas in a statement when the rule was announced on February 21.
A federal judge blocked the Biden administration on Thursday from executing its plan to release migrants into the U.S without court dates after Florida sued prior to the expiration of Title 42.
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Katelynn Richardson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Joe Biden” by The White House. Photo “Courtroom” by Clyde Robinson. CC BY 2.0.
